A Bris It Is: Bennett Epstein's Daughter Has a Boy

I had no idea how many Jewish attorneys I know. In the past week I received no less than twenty forwarded email messages from lawyers about US District Judge Kimba Wood's decision to grant a recess in an ongoing court case if Bennett Epstein, one of the lawyers in the trial, becomes a grandfather to a baby boy. As I blogged last week, Judge Wood famously agreed to allow Epstein the time off from the trial to attend his grandson's bris, but also taught him a lesson about parity. If Epstein's daughter gave birth to a baby girl, Kimba Wood offered her opinion that a simcha of equal magnitude should be presented.

Of course Jewish feminists around the world applauded Wood's response to Epstein. But, alas, it's a boy and we won't know what type of Simchat Bat ceremony the family would have held.

According to the NY Daily News, "Defense lawyer Bennett Epstein (pictured) stood in court on Monday and told Wood: 'Judge, I have an announcement to make: Hoo hah!' It was Epstein's slightly unorthodox way of announcing the birth of his grandson. But there was precedent. Epstein had cautioned Wood earlier this month that his 33-year-old daughter, Eva, was due to give birth on Dec. 3 - right after the start of his loan-officer client's mortgage fraud trial."

I didn't have to wait to read about Bennett Epstein's news in the NY Daily News. As promised, Mark Fass, a staff reporter for the NY Law Journal who is friends with Epstein, sent me an email this morning to inform me of the grandson's birth.

Epstein's letter to Wood and her response have been so well circulated around the Web that it would appear this newborn baby boy's fifteen minutes of fame will be among his first minutes of life. Mazel Tov!